The Aspen Ruggerfest Committee has decided to not offer prize money, after experimenting with it in past years. The idea to offer prize money was to see if it would effect interest in the tournament in the atmosphere of burgeoning professionalism in the USA. After observing the competition and talking to various attendees, the committee decided that offering prize money was not in the best interests of the tournament, that Ruggerfest is not about the professional model. The committee wishes  to maintain the original intentions of the founders of Ruggerfest 50 years ago. Then Eastern Rockies Rugby Football Union President Terry Fleener wrote a letter to  Steve Sherlock, the founder of the Gentleman of Aspen RFC, stating  that  Aspen would be a great place to have a ‘festival of rugby’ where teams could assemble to celebrate their sport over the weekend with play and revelry. Professionalism runs on money, amateur play runs on passion.